I wish to be a candidate for this year's board. A while ago I was on the board for three years and enjoyed the experience quite a bit, so I encourage others (specially those who have not yet been on the board) to run too.
One of my roles in the Squeak community has been to remember the past. That was pretty useful in my first year on the board when I was able to help with the relicensing effort. I always keep in mind the importance of Etoys (the reason Squeak was created in the first place).
This doesn't mean that my focus isn't in the future. I enjoy other languages and other Smalltalks and think it is a good idea to borrow the best ideas. Having said that, I enjoy how self contained Squeak is compared to other systems and try to avoid external dependencies (like external window systems, font system, translation packages, etc) but I try to support those who want to work in that direction.
Most of my Squeak work has been in hardware, with special processors for implementing the Squeak virtual machine. I am working on a book about this and hope to release some fun stuff this year.
While there are several things that I think differently from the Pharo guys, I agree fully that it is interesting to look for ways to get some financing for stuff our community needs to get done. That is always complicated in any open source project but is an important part of being able to grow the community.
-- Jecel